STORY
They were glad for her; they The instruction in farming was
made Maxi see how much better harder still; unaccustomed backs
(Continued from Page 1)
it was. But when two, three, 10 achol in the bending, stretching,
Nothing seemed too fantast'e to- of them died, they buried them bending to the soil. But it had
silently at sea. Talking then was been fascinating, perhaps because
day.
useless
it was now; more because they
Bl es sed memory, that forgets
horror so soon! The nightmare
When, finally, they felt the felt they were needed. They must
seemed like some one else's story earth of Palestine beneath their learn quickly, thoroughly, so they
now. The endless circling outside trembling feet, it was incredible. could go out to the new settle-
of Palestine, was it weeks' months? They had actually landed! How ment.
They had lost track of time by queer it had been just to walk
She remembered the discussion
then. When Maxi's grandmother on something solid again. She she and David had had the night
died, she seemed so peaceful. and David had helped some of before they left for the Emek.
the others; by helping they seemed She had hesitated about express-
to grow stronger themselves. The ing her fear to David, but she
warm baths in the hospital at should have known he would un-
Haifa, the clean feel of the sheets derstand.
Happy Neu' Year to All
against their bodies—that cleans-
"David," she had said, "I'm
ing process must have been what afraid. I'm angry with myself ;
brought their strength back so 1 keep telling myself nothing can
qu'ckly.
hold terror, danger for us any
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The country was so strange to
them. She hadn't heard Hebrew
since her Bible lessons when she
was a child in Prague. But how
kind the people were; the hands
stretched out to welcome them,
help them; it wasn't weakness
then to cry.
The training school at Haifa
had spurred their deadened brains
to think again. It Was going to
school once more; a challenge to
them to learn Hebrew quickly,
difficult though the language was.
ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS
•
Upon this momentous occasion in
the lives of the Jewish people,
we extend sincere wishes for a
most joyous holiday.
•
Hotel Webster Hall
CASS AT PUTNAM
Le
Shono
Tovo'Tikosevu -- A Happy New Year to All
MERCHANTS FUR COMPANY
Manufacturing Furriers
206 E. GRAND RIVER AVE.
805-9 Merchants Bldg.
LOU GENDLER
HURD CLARK
NEW YEAR GREETINGS TO OUR MANY
JEWISH FRIENDS
BELLE ISLE RIDING ACADEMY
GEO. HIGGINS, President
FITZROY 2624
ROSH HASHONAI I GREETINGS TO ALL
Keystone Engineering
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ALEX G. MARION, Pres.
Phone VI. 1 - 8656
100 E. Cicotte
a.
21
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Septj'inber I I. 1942
Ecorse, Mich.
more. I keep saying this is Pal-
estine, this is our land, but no
matter how I reassure myself,
there's something there I can't
express; some fear of what the
Emek, what living in a farm set-
tlement will do to us."
"I know, dear," David had re-
plied. "I've felt that way myself.
I've tried to reason it out. I
don't think it's because of the
hard work that's waiting for us.
We've been taught enough here
in Haifa not to fear that. We
all know what to do if malaria
or any sickness should come. I
don't think it's that, at all; I
think it's simply that we have
all believed so long that Jews
can't till the soil. We were snug
back in Prague. We used to say
we Jews are men of mind, we
must work with our brains, we
can't work with our hands. I
suppose we still believe that,
Rachel, even though we have been
told of the success of so many
different settlements. It's hard
to change a way of living for
years overnight, or in a few short
months. But darling, we must go.
We have accepted a trust. We've
been taken in with such warm
welcome, we've been trained so
painstakingly; the 60 of us who
were left have been kept to-
gether so that we can build our
own settlement out of the waste.
We'll do it—we'll make homes for
ourselves. Let's do it with as
much joy as we can. Others have
gone before us, they're happy. We
will be too, Rachel. We'll go to-
gether."
And they were—even more than
she had imagined. There was
David's sweet head bent among
the rows of green pea vines. They
worked together; they built to-
gether they lived and loved and
learned together.
The system that had been per-
fected of putting up a settlement
in one (lay had been explained
to them before they went, but its
actual working out was a revela
tion to them all. The prefabri-
cated barracks and watch tower;
the minute instructions that were
placed in each; their supplies
labelled so exactly; they had been
able in one day to put up shel-
ters and build fences around the
land with the help of experienced
men and women franc Haifa. They
set up guards against Arab raids
for the night, and then they were
on their own.
How bleak the land seemed the
next morning! They looked at
one another with misgiving. This
land that had been given them
seemed to dare them to make it
tillable. Well, they started. Each
had been given a daily task.
Her's was to work in the fields
near David and some of the oth-
ers. (Newlyweds don't usually
know how to cook, she had re-
minded them.) They had started
out as buoyantly as they could.
"Today we'll clear enough to
plant a vegetable garden," they
had said. Picking up stones, one
by one; bend, pick up the stone,
put it in the sack on your shoul-
der; bend again, pick up more
stones, throw them in the sack,
until by nightfall they were bend-
ing, lifting, without though, be-
yond pain, knowing only those
"vicious stones must be conuered.
When the last light had gone
from the fields, they all gathered
in Mother Levenson's community
kitchen for the meager evening
meal. Their supper finished, the
guards must take their turns all
night, while the others slept.
The work was hard; part of
their land was swamp, some of
A. sand, all of it wasted by cen-
turies of neglect. The waste of
it was what angered them the
most. But each new small vic-
tory over that barren land brought
such excitement to their hearts.
The nightly meetings in the com-
munity hall became more than
discussions of their daily prob-
lems. Exhausted, still they argued,
planned, discussed, visualized the
modern farm they would make.
Months and seasons of cruel
labor seemed now to have _passed
1 so quickly. Rachel remembered
with a smile the glorious cele- to llow from their hearts to give
bration the night they finished their fingers magic. The light
the stone building for the cows that shone from their eyes gave
and chickens. And when the vege- prpof of the change in their feel-
table garden yielded food for ing. They could not fail, for the;
their table—never had peas an.I were no longer afraid.
carrots tasted so delicious?
Rachel picked up her hoe. She
She looked about her. "Our looked about her at the growing
fields are friendly, now," she fields, the saplings that would
thought. "We've planted them, one day be their orchard; the
and they're growing for us. community house where their
That's what they meant when minds met in endless plans; the
they used to say that Mother small family cabins, David's and
had 'growing hands.' Somehow her's, too; the road leading back
the actual preparing of the earth, to Haifa that their stones had
watering it, watching it, has done built, and she thought:
"This land is ,Jewish—it is
something to all of us. I don't
know why; maybe it's because Erotz Yisrael. We're not the first,
you can't rush growing things; and we won't be the last. We
you must wait until the plants shall live and see our children
are ready to come out into the grow beside us, and' when we're
sun. The watching and caring gone, there will be more of us to
and waiting for the earth forces rise with the sun, and work in
you to be patient. And when once the fields, and sing together at
you've felt the thrall of seeing the close of day, We are here—
something you've planted sprout, it is ours—we have come home!
you grow tender toward all the
brown earth you've cared for.
Our hands are 'growing hands'
now; the peace of it has made
us whole again."
Rosh Hashonah Greetings
She held her hands out before
her. They were brown and cal-
loused from hard work. Her face
was tan from so much working
in the sun. There had been a
time when the wrinkles about her
eyes would +lave alarmed her van-
ity. But now those things could
not bother her. So gradual had
been the change, she could not
tell when they had all come to
realize that this soil was their's
because they were of the land.
Their hands were in it, their
bodies were bent to its shaping,
they lived with it. The love they
had come to feel for it seemed
That All of You May Enjoy
a Year Replete With Good
Health, Happiness and Pros-
perity is the Wish of
Mr. Mrs. Abe Kasle
2280 Atkinson Ave.
Heartiest Rosh Hashonal, Greetings to All
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